Y Chronology of Events - Metroland



Y Chronology of Events

12/11/2009 – David Brown, CEO of the Capital District YMCA, holds two small meetings with the leaders of the neighborhoods surrounding the Washington Ave. branch and informs them that due to declining membership and persistent deficits, in January he will be forced to publicly announce the branch’s April closure. Several people in attendance express their concern that the CDYMCA has not come forward sooner with the Washington Ave. Y’s fiscal problems and asked for community support. When Betsy Mercogliano asks why only a handful of neighborhood associations were invited to the meetings, David Brown replies, “Well, I don’t want 100 angry people coming to my office.” She responds that either way, many people in the city are going to be shocked and upset when they hear the news.

12/13 – The Times Union runs a story in which it reports that David Brown has backed off somewhat from his initial statements at the neighborhood meetings: "It's certainly part of the review process. It's certainly an option," Brown said of closure, adding that the organization's preference is to keep open the facility at 274 Washington Ave., where it has been since the 1950s. "We're trying to get people to step up to the plate to become members ... and help save the Albany Y."

12/14 – Betsy and Chris Mercogliano draw up petition and place it at the front desk of the Washington Ave. Y with executive director Orville Abrahams’ permission.

– Channels 13 and 9 do stories on the strong membership and community reaction to the threat of the Y’s closure.

12/15 – The petition receives over 200 signatures in the first 24 hours.

12/17 – Metroland magazine runs an editorial and a news story critical of David Brown’s shifting statements about the impending decision to close the Washington Ave. Y. Both articles question the validity of David Brown’s statement that the CDYMCA wants to keep the Washington Ave. branch open.

12/20 – The Times Union runs a front page story entitled “YMCA’s Plight Stokes Emotions,” in which I accuse the Y of abandoning their mission in one of the areas of greatest need, and David Brown argues that there will be no loss of programs when the Y closes because they will all be moved to the North Albany branch.

12/21 – David Brown telephones me at 9:15 a.m. to say that he is willing to keep the Y open, but only if people start signing up to be members. Later in the conversation he calls it a “money pit,” and says they have “tried everything” over the past ten years to rein in the deficit, but “nothing has worked.” Then he reverts to saying he doesn’t want to see the Y shut down – he reminds me he used to be the director there – and he tells me about the membership drive he plans to launch on New Year’s Day with a waiving of the joiners fee and special rates for those who only use the Washington Ave. facility. I reply that only offering discount memberships won’t be enough to reverse the longstanding trend in declining membership and increased operating costs, and will simply provide justification for closing the Y when not enough new members materialize by April. I tell him about our petition and its call for a strategic task force to address all of the causes of the Y’s growing deficit.

– At the Y that afternoon our membership director Demetra Brown reacts defensively to the petition, and also to the recent media coverage. She tells me angrily that they have “done everything” to attract new members, but the “community never responds.”

– Later that afternoon I have a lengthy and fruitful conversation with Rick Snell in the national YMCA office in Chicago. I share my concern about the negative mindset David Brown and the leadership of our Y have developed toward it, and that there won’t be enough time to turn things around and save it. Rick tells me that he personally believes the YMCA’s true mission lies in the cities and that the suburban Ys are suppose to subsidize the original urban Ys out of which they grew. I tell him about the petition and the public meeting we are planning to hold with David Brown and he advises me to include the CDYMCA board because David Brown works for them. He also urges me to make sure that our group avoids falling into a protest mode and that we continue to present ourselves as “part of the solution.”

12/22 – David Brown meets with concerned city councilmen to discuss the Washington Ave. Y situation. Anton Konev, the councilman-elect from the district in which the Y is located and a lifelong YMCA member, later reports to his supporters in an email: “I ask you to get involved in saving the Downtown Albany Washington Ave YMCA. Capital District YMCA CEO announced that they will be closing that branch unless an unrealistic goal of more than doubling the membership in 3 months is reached. This will have a severe effect for many Albany City residents, especially those who cannot afford other gyms (500 people are currently there on scholarship) and children who are there every Saturday with Gang prevention program. If it closes the effect will be felt throughout the region: more obese children and families, more crime, more stress on the rest of the YMCA branches. It will have a detrimental effect on the currently walkable and livable community.”

– Fifteen minutes later David Brown responds in an email: “Spoken like a true politician, instead of discussing the truth that was shared with you at our meeting you want to twist things so you can come off as if you are saving the day, I'm replying to all so they know I think you are a lightweight kid who got kicked out of school, you have no credibility, grow up young man and help be part of the solution instead of the problem. You know what you wrote is inaccurate, but keep lying, it will catch up with you. I look forward to our meeting January 5. Merry Xmas”

12/23 – David Brown requests a one-on-one meeting with me at the Y at 1:00 p.m. He begins by telling me how much he appreciates our efforts on behalf of the Y, but then he immediately follows with, “The petitions and the public meeting are a waste of time because I’m not the mayor and I’m going to do what I’m going to do.” He complains to me about the online petition and how many of the signatories are not members. I remind him about the written petition being circulated at the Y and predict that there will be over 1000 member signatures on it by the time we present it to him at the Jan. 5 public meeting. He says that won’t matter either because “those people are already members.” He asks me what we have in mind with our task force idea and I explain that it will be a combination of highly committed Y members and community stakeholders who have expertise in marketing, youth programming, building maintenance and repair, energy conservation, capital campaigns, and so on, and Y staff. He tells me that this isn’t a good idea because the Y has already hired experts to do all of these things and none of it has helped the Y solve its financial problems. Then he pointedly questions why we as “outsiders” think we can accomplish what Y leaders and a series of paid consultants have been unable to do. I reply that in order for the task force to succeed it will be imperative that Y staff be willing to work together non-defensively with us. He then changes the subject to his belief that the only solution to the problem is to “tear the existing Y down and build a new one.” I say that while a new building would be wonderful, I doubt that the funding for such a project exists in this down economic time, and am very concerned that this kind of thinking will only result in the Y’s closure. Dave then repeats that the CDYMCA can’t go on losing so much money at the Washington Ave. Y, and asks for our understanding if he has to shut it down in April if the membership drive doesn’t result in a significant enough “positive trend.” I responded that we won’t agree to an April deadline because it doesn’t allow for enough time to turn around the Y’s longstanding problems, especially if he is not going to support the formation of a task force to address them, and that if the Y does close in April there is likely to be massive public outrage. Dave stands up to put his coat on while I am still in mid-sentence and thanks me dismissively.

12/26 – Betsy and I receive an email from David Brown informing us that he has rescinded Orville’s approval of the task force’s request to hold an organizing meeting at the Y. David also wrote that after speaking with me on 12/23 he met with his board and they decided they have “no interest in forming committees other than a committee to sell memberships and to replace the building. We have had a number of committees and tasks forces that have done all the work that you are suggesting and those committees have been made up of members, board members and community leaders who represent and live in the city of Albany.”

– When I arrive at the Y at mid-day I notice that the petition is no longer at the front desk and am told that Orville Abrahams and Demetra Brown ordered it removed because it was suddenly creating “too much confusion.” I also notice that the Metroland rack has disappeared from the lobby, where it has sat for the past 20 years, and later learn that Orville ordered it removed “due to content.”

12/31 – In the morning Betsy and I receive an email from David Brown requesting that we allow him to begin the public meeting with a Power Point presentation addressing “many of the questions, concerns, and rumors.” He also expresses his “hope to work with the neighborhoods to keep the doors open.”

– In the afternoon Troy Record reporter Dave Canfield interviews me by phone and tells me that David Brown told him that the North Albany Y is more than adequate to take over everything that happens at Washington Ave, so that its closure will have little impact on the community.

1/5/2010 – At the public meeting at the Albany Public Library David Brown states that he will close the Y unless there are 700 new members by April 1. After we present him with the petition with over 1000 signatures he agrees to work on membership recruitment—and only membership recruitment—with our community task force.

1/6 – David Brown calls the Washington Ave. Y “obsolete” in a Channel 9 interview.

1/8 – Longtime Washington Ave. Y member Bill Kayo approaches me at the Y to tell me he is closely allied with all of the Albany-area labor unions and he has a plan for reaching out to them to encourage their members to join the Y. It involves their unions making an up front annual donation to the Y and then their members receive a 15% discount off of their Y membership. Bill says he has already presented the idea to David Brown and David Brown told him the Y has tried discounting and it “doesn’t work.”

1/12 – David Brown meets with the editorial board of the Albany Times Union and states that because only 5 new members signed up the day after the public meeting and because new membership numbers were not yet significantly higher than Jan. 2009, it looks like he will have to follow through with the plan to close the Y in April.

1/13 – The story about the probable closing of the Y due to low new-membership rates runs on the front page of the local section of the Times Union.

– David Brown emails me a request to meet with him and the CEO of Girls Inc. at the Washington Ave. Y at 10 a.m. I write back to ask what he wants to discuss and he answers with two words: “the ymca.” When I repeat the question and tell him I’d like to know specifically why he wants to meet because I have an extremely busy schedule ahead of me, his only response is that if I don’t meet, then “things probably won’t go well at tomorrow night’s community task force meeting.” Not wanting to diminish the chances of successful cooperation with him and the Y staff, I arrive at the meeting with Larry Becker from the community task force. David Brown refuses to allow Larry into the room, his stated reason being that Larry is an attorney and has written the CDYMCA board requesting financial and other information regarding the Washington Ave. branch. Then he goes into a litany about how unfairly people are treating him, making false accusations, twisting his words in the press, etc. At one point he says that the reason he included the 700 new members by April 1 or else figure in his presentation at the public meeting was because a member of the Y who was upset about the Y closing had demanded exact figures from him. Prior to that he was on record as stating that he only needed to see a “positive trend.” I say nothing, only listen, and when he looks to me for a response I say that I came to listen and to show good faith because I very much want him to attend tomorrow night’s meeting with an open mind and a willingness to cooperate fully. He then says he will only attend if people promise not to be angry with him if he closes the Y in April. I respond by saying I don’t want to think that far ahead and don’t want to focus on the negative. Complex problems like the one the Y is facing need to be addressed a step at a time, I say, and the first step is for us to form a focused working group of which he and the Y staff are full partners.

1/14 – The task force meets with David Brown, CDYMCA chairman Joe Vitale, and Orville Abrahams. The main topic of discussion is a membership drive, and the CDYMCA agrees to provide promotional materials for distribution, as well as telephones and the Y membership database so that the task force can conduct a new membership phone-a-thon. The CDYMCA also agrees to extend the joiner fee waiver into February and also to establish a student rate.

1/16 – The Times Union publishes my letter to the editor, in which I state that the CDYMCA’s April 1/700 net membership gain is unreasonable and that given more time the membership can be restored to a sustainable level.

1/17 – I receive the following email; “Assuming you are the Chris Mercogliano whose letter appears in today's Times Union, I offer this comment/suggestion on the Washington Avenue YMCA. Although I have never been involved in the Y, I am distressed at its impending closing as another diminution of our city. I am a senior citizen with a Medicare Advantage plan (MVP) that provides Silver Sneakers membership in a variety of health clubs. Thinking it might be a good idea for me to get into more regular exercise and that I might be able to help keep the Y opened, I checked and found that our local Y does not accept Silver Sneakers. It's my understanding that participating health clubs are paid for Silver Sneakers memberships. Although the payment may be less than the regular retail price, it is still cash coming in and does not involve much effort by the club to get the business. In Albany, the Jewish Community Center accepts Silver Sneakers and I am sure benefits from it. Interestingly, the MVP website indicates YMCAs in several nearby cities take Silver Sneakers, including Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, Rochester, Utica, and Binghamton. But not Albany. I would think every avenue would be explored to generate revenue. I commend your volunteer efforts in behalf of the Y and of our community. However it does seem that YMCA management has already decided and is determined to close the Washington Avenue facility regardless, that it is just putting on a show about giving it one last chance. I hope I am wrong and that you are successful.”

– I email David Brown to ask about the Silver Sneakers program and he responds, “We do participate, through CDPHP and it is at all branches, a contract has been sign with the other HMO and will be in effect soon. They can stop by and sign up.” One month later I will learn that the Silver Sneakers program at the Washington Ave. Y has still not been finalized.

1/19 – Larry Becker, Alison Coleman, Chris Mercogliano from the task force and Orville Abrahams from the Y meet with Mayor Jennings and Albany Parking Authority head Michael Klein to discuss the Y’s use of the parking lots across the street from the Y. We ask Mr. Klein for free use of the lots and he says that would violate Parking Authority bylaws. Instead he offers the Y essentially a half-price deal and says he will put all of the rent the Y pays into improving the lots. The cost for 17 dedicated spaces would be $4,200. Due to the Y’s precarious financial situation he also agrees to an initial six-month contract. Orville agrees to bring the proposal back to David Brown for consideration.

1/20 – I reach out to Senator Gillibrand’s office and am told that David Connors, her regional point man, will call me. I then email the task force and David Brown to say, “Just a heads up to let everyone know that the Task Force's funding and capital campaign committee is organizing itself in order to meet with local, state, and federal representatives to explore possible sources of funding for our Y. I realize we haven't had the opportunity yet to go over our plans as a group, but time is of the essence because we have to make these contacts before the various budget windows close for 2010. Although I am not on the committee, I have already emailed Senator Gillibrand because I have a personal connection with her.”

– David Brown’s email response: “I’m confused by this email. We agreed to discuss these matters as a task force and then move forward strategically. As a group we identified a number of key action items that will be in place and completed by the next task force meeting. Those items were emailed yesterday. The task force does not represent the YMCA; it is a group working with the YMCA. YMCA officials and board members are the appropriate people to meet with elected officials. This action potentially harms funding that is designated already to the Albany Branch and programs. YMCA officials and volunteers have scheduled meetings the first week in February to discuss several key items for the YMCA including the Washington Ave site. We continue to work in good faith on the action items we identified as a team. Today’s email and other recent actions jeopardize continued cooperation.

– In the meantime David Connors from Senator Gillibrand’s has called me to say that the Senator already knows about the Washington Ave. Y’s plight and does not want it to close. He offers to set up a joint meeting of all elected officials in the area with access to public funds so that they can devise a cooperative strategy to help the Y. I tell him that I will speak with the task force and CDYMCA leadership about his proposal and get back to him.

1/25 – Orville Abrahams informs me that David Brown has rejected the city’s parking offer. Later, David Brown says angrily, “Then city should’ve given us that parking.”

– David Brown calls task force member Jessica Neidl to discuss the Y situation. Her notes on the conversation: “He really didn't say anything new except that at tomorrow's meeting the present members of the board will be delivering some ‘painful’ information. He didn't elaborate and I didn't press him. He also said that ‘this Y has cancer, and it's terminal.’"

1/26 – At the joint task force meeting with David Brown and Joseph Vitale, David Brown begins the meeting by objecting to my letter to the editor, to notifying members on the Save the Albany Y Facebook page that he refused the city’s parking offer, and to reaching out to Senator Gillibrand. He cites my actions as a violation of the “spirit of cooperation” between the CDYMCA and the task force. Joseph Vitale adds that task force member Larry Becker’s request for financial information regarding the Washington Ave. facility reflects a “lack of trust.” Together the two officials threaten to sever the CDYMCA’s connection with the task force if there are further expressions of “negativity” by task force members. Also the task force has invited Bill Kayo so that as a group we can revisit his idea for reaching out to area organized labor. Bill repeats his proposal, adding that a number of union heads he has spoken with have told him that there is likely to be a large positive response from their memberships. Unfazed, David Brown states three reasons for opposing it: The Y just doesn’t do discounts because in the end they don’t bring in very many new members; discounting is unfair to members who pay the full rate and it also undermines the Y’s financial assistance program; and discounting would jeopardize the Y’s tax-exempt status. When members of the task force press David Brown to at least give the idea a try, given the desperate straits our Y is in, Joseph Vitale says that he and David would be willing to give the idea further consideration. With regard to reaching out to elected officials for funding for Washington Ave. David Brown reiterates that the CDYMCA has its own people whose job it is to seek out government funding.

1/27 – I observe a student at the front desk at the Y inquiring about membership and the desk clerk isn’t informing him about the student rate. When I ask the membership director about this, she says that the desk staff hasn’t been notified about the student rate yet, but will be soon.

1/28 – Anton Konev sends David Brown the proposed language for a Common Council resolution he has drafted in support of the Washington Ave. Y. David Brown’s response is riddled with biting sarcasm.

2/3 – I get back to David Connors and tell him that David Brown does not support the idea of the task force meeting with area officials. When I ask for his advice, he says that there’s very little the senator can do if the CDYMCA isn’t willing to make the Washington Ave. branch a priority. He says he has already checked and the CDYMCA hasn’t put in any requests anywhere for Washington Ave. for at least several years.

2/9 – Rich McDevitt, the head of the task force’s funding committee, learns in off-the-record conversations with people inside the offices of several elected officials that the CDYMCA has informed them the Washington Ave. Y will be closing in April.

– Donald Hyman, an African American community theater leader emails me with a proposal to organize a May 1 telethon to raise funds to save the Washington Ave. Y. He has already drafted an entertainment program drawing from performers in the community, and he asks for my support in soliciting television air time for the event. I speak with Scott Sauer, Vice President of WMHT and he says that, while his station cannot air the event because it would violate their non-profit status, he would be willing to help with the production of the telethon. I then contact Robert Furlong, the Vice President of WRGB TV, who says that he would very likely be able to donate 4-6 hours of airtime on their affiliate WB channel if we take care of all of the organizing and production work.

2/10 – The task force meets with David Brown and goes over plans for the phone-a-thon.

– The phone-a-thon begins with ten volunteers making 550 phone calls. The response from members being asked to each bring in a new member or sponsor a youth membership is overwhelmingly positive.

2/12 – Donald Hyman presents his telethon proposal to David Brown, who says he will not approve a telethon on behalf of the Washington Ave. Y, and instead asks Donald to consider doing a fundraiser for the CDYMCA’s Reach Out for Youth fund in the Fall.

2/16 – Still not having heard anything from the CDYMCA about Bill Kayo’s union proposal, I telephone the membership director of the Park Slope YMCA in Brooklyn, which is an urban facility similar in many ways to the Washington Ave. Y. I learn that their branch offers a 20% discount to approximately 20 organizations with no upfront donation. The only stipulation is that a minimum of 50 members from that organization join the Y.

– I also speak with the head of the NYS Health/Labor Alliance, Tony Potenza, who is Bill Kayo’s primary contact with the labor unions, to tell him that the task force is going to push for Bill Kayo’s proposal based on the knowledge that other YMCAs offer discounts more generous than the one Bill Kayo is proposing. Tony tells me he has joined the Washington Ave. Y himself as a show of support and he thinks the unions can really help the Y with its problems, including donating labor to make needed upgrades to the building. He also tells me that Bill Kayo has met privately with David Brown to discuss the discount proposal and that he and Bill are still waiting for an answer.

2/20 – A mother from the Center Square neighborhood writes to Orville Abrahams with some simple, low-cost suggestions for making the Washington Ave. Y more attractive to families with young children. The response comes from David Brown, telling her, “We built a facility in north albany that addresses all the issues you wrote of, that is part of the reason why we are facing closure, the building has many capital issues, give north albany a try. We built a beautiful facility there for the residents of the city that answers all

the issues on washington avenue, including parking. We can not afford a Ymca in every neighborhood like the library or police, we are not a municipality. Not everyone can get to washington ave and parking is an issue. Many parents don't come to the Y because of the issues with the facility, perceptions of safety and parking. Thanks for your note and suggestions.”

– The mom responds, “I don't live within walking distance of the North Albany YMCA. With regard to claims of the YMCA not being able to afford the Washington Avenue facility: the arguments are analogous to the child who murders his parents and then asks the courts to have mercy on a poor orphan.”

– David Brown replies, in an email copied to me, “Not sure what that means about the murder stuff but your original letter is a good one because it points out all the problems with the facility, we don't have the resources to address them, that's why north albany is important. We have and continue to invest in the city and we will be opening a brand new facility in Schenectady next month. The Schenectady facility has all the amenities you describe as does north albany. People support other Ymcas by being members, that has not been the history on washington avenue. There is not one location in albany that everyone can walk to, I suggest you tell the city to provide those services and to stop asking not for profits to shoulder the load alone. Why don't you have a community center provided by the city in every neighborhood. Every resource in the city is a not for profit. The ymca provides after school care in 11 schools, camp in 5 schools, will be running teen nights at the charter schools, will have a teen center at st.rose and albany high and has a youth center in arbor hill. The boys and girls club is around the corner from the y, the V. I. Is up the street, trinity is in the south end, the Jcc is on the other side of town. The YMCA has three facilities for adults to work out, it is time for us to go to two. We can only do as much good as we can afford to pay for, the public has spoken and has shown that washington ave is no longer the facility they want, if the people wanted it we would have the membership, and with all the attention we still have people not joining and leaving the Y. It is not a product the masses want. Tell the city to take over the building and keep the doors open or the county, why is there no funding or support for such a valuable resource, why do you continue to build librarys only blocks apart. Name one facility everyone can walk to, everyone. The majority of washington ave members drive, our membership zip codes show that, and the people in center square have cars but don't want to drive to north albany for fear of loosing their parking spot when they return, the 400,000 we loose there can be better spent with out reach into schools, churchs and librarys, our focus is to slove problems like obesity, not sink money into a building that is out dated and basically serves adults with resources to go to another facility. You will never agree with me and I will never agree with you, so maybe Tom, Chris and the others can take over the Y, we have offered it to the community for a dollar, they have refused it, I wonder why, but why don't you and the task force run the building since we are obviously not good at it, this is not the sixities, it takes more than protest and a ponytail to pay the bills, last time I checked National Grid does not except emotional checks, have a good weekend.”

2/25 – Tony Potenza calls to tell me Bill Kayo has received a counter offer from David Brown. Tony is furious and calls the offer, which demands $25,000 in up-front money and includes only a 10% discount, a “slap in the face.” He says $25,000 is an impossible amount for Albany unions, especially in the current economy. He also says it is clear to him that the CDYMCA has no intention of saving the Washington Ave. Y.

3/3 – Task force member Bill Petit and I meet in the morning with the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club to discuss a possible partnership with the Washington Ave. Y. He says he is very open to exploring the idea of the Boys and Girls taking over the unused space at Washington Ave. and sharing other spaces like the gymnasium and the pool. We agree it’s a potential win-win because the boys and Girls Club needs more space and the Y needs new sources of revenue. We also agree that the next step is to conduct an analysis of the space at the Y to see if there is enough to meet the needs of both the Y and the Boys and Girls Club.

– The task force meets in the evening with David Brown and he informs us that despite the fact that 655 new members have joined the Y since January 1, the actual membership revenue is up only slightly over last year and therefore the CDYMCA will be moving forward with its plan to close the Washington Ave. facility on April 1. He says the problem is the increase in membership non-renewals, which total several hundred. When we ask for the go-ahead for the task force to work on membership retention, he says no, adding that this is the YMCA’s responsibility and that it no longer wants to address the problem and instead has decided to close. When we then ask him about the offer he claims to have made to sell the facility to us for a dollar, he ignores the question and says that he has already spoken with leaders of the Israel AME church and the Boys and Girls Club and made that offer to them. He also says he is absolutely opposed to the Washington Ave. Y taking on a new identity as an independently chartered YMCA under new leadership, but refuses to state why.

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